The Bee Keepers Diary

Welcome to the Cardigan Bay Honey Blog. Myself or Ceri to will write a short update each month to let you know what work or developments are happening with Cardigan Bay Honey!

Welsh Heather honey -Taking the bees to the Heather

If you get it right, like we did in 2017, the heather flow can be like ‘turning on a tap’ of nectar. The flow is short, lasting around 4-6 days but if it happens a beekeeper can expect a bountiful harvest of the distinctive, premium, honey product.

August 19^th 2019

Catching a Swarm

Today we visited our furthest apiary which is located in the foothills of the Preseli Mountains. The weather was beautifully sunny and its a joy to get out together and do some actual beekeeping following days inside potting honey. It was time to put clearer boards onto the hives in readiness for collecting honey tomorrow.…

June 3^rd 2019

Spring Honey Collecting

The weather has been kind this Spring and the bee colonies are strong so we have got a bumper "best ever" Spring crop to collect. Today we went to collect spring honey from one of our apiaries. The honey that is collected at this time of year is primarily from the tree blossoms; mostly blackthorn,…

May 9^th 2019

First Pollen Harvest

The pollen traps worked like a dream. Too well in fact so we had to ensure we didn’t take too much from any one colony so as not to deprive them of their ‘bee bread’.

April 4^th 2019

Bees Busy Bringing in the Pollen

We visited 2 more apiaries today and witnessed many different colours of pollen sacks on the bees today. From each flower they visit, bees collect pollen, which contains the male reproductive cells of those plants. The bees take that pollen and combine it with a bit of nectar and their own digestive enzymes to create…

March 7^th 2019

A Bit of Good Weather

It was an uncharacteristically warm and sunny February day today. Ceri planned for us to use this opportunity to check some of the coastal apiary sites as there has been some high winds.

February 17^th 2019

Wax Frames

Its winter and cold outside. As always are jobs to do. We still attend farmers markets every week either in Swansea or Aberystwyth so there is always ongoing honey potting to do and wax products to make.

January 29^th 2019

All about Beeswax

Beeswax is a secretion from the 8 wax producing glands on the worker bees abdomen. The bees eat their honey stores and wax is secreted in the form of scales. They use this wax to produce the hexagonal patterned cells that make honey comb.

January 12^th 2019